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Deathdealer and the Master of the Hidden Mist
As the sun slowly began to burn off the last of the morning mist that shrouded one of the forests just within the borders of Kirigakure, a ghastly sight began to reveal itself. The signs of a battle, recently fought became evident. Kunai and shuriken littered over the sodden ground, embedded into branches and trunks, steam rising from the ground where a sizable explosion had clearly gone off. And of course there were the corpses. The bodies of shinobi, in some cases still intact, were strewn everywhere, burnt, and, more peculiarly, frozen. Every so often there lay a body, cold to the touch, with the remnants of a spike of ice melting in their chest. Clearly whoever had done this had been caught somewhat by surprise, and the offending parties had paid with their lives. The birds were first beginning to circle over the area when movement revealed a figure, cloaked in dark garments, picking his way through the forest. He stumbled onto the edge of the battleground and stopped. "Dammit it all to hell, if those goddamn birds have gotten to him before me...", he trailed off before stepping over the first of many bodies, turning each one over as he went. On the occasion he found an intact body, he would check the pulse and then either move on, muttering to himself or briefly place his glowing hands over the most obvious injury, and then remove them once he heard the groans that indicated the seriously injured, rather than the dying. Some time passed before he turned over one body, slumped against a tree with a rather large number of kunai and shuriken sticking out their chest. On the back of the body's waterproof cloak was a stylised snowflake. Seikaku quickly moved the body to flatter ground, removed the weapons from the corpse and unrolled a bundle containing his tools. Something crunched in his hand and he brought a single, now clawed finger lightly down the length of the body, peeling off the clothing. The skin underneath was mottled and bloody, the many wounds exposing some of the catastrophic damage to the organs that lay within. "This could take some time", Seikaku muttered aloud before taking a scalpel and getting to work. The silence was barely broken, but above the stillness of the rapidly dissipating mist and the muted sound of birds calling from hiding places in the brambles, a twig snapped underfoot. The battle hadn't apparently claimed every life. Someone else was there. But the Shinobi who appeared a moment later, emerging from the branches of the trees to land on the clearing where the medical-nin was working away at the corpse were not normal members of Kirigakure's military forces, but rather Anbu. There were three of them, and their faces were concealed by smooth white masks that glowed in the dimness of the woods with a skull-like luster. "Stop right there," one of the Anbu commanded as he drew a short-sword from the scabbard slung across his back. The metal of the completely black ninja-tō glinted with a murderous light as he leveled it at the back of the Shinobi's neck. The only other feature that distinguished him from his two comrades were the two blue gashes that resembled waves and cut across the middle of his mask, but he carried an air of command that set him apart from the other Anbu. "You're not authorized to be here," he said evenly. "Nor are you welcome," the Anbu next to the leader chimed in. "You have two options," the leader continued, "Either come with us for questioning, or..." "Or will shove your head into that tree over there and screw it off." The awkward threat made by the interruptive Anbu caused a prolonged silence between the four of them. "Really Kabo?" the third asked with disgust. "I was going to say 'or you can leave the way you came.' Try to contain yourself Kabo." Kabo sighed. "Whatever you say, Nigauri." "Nigauri," the leader, turned his attention back to the medical-nin. "State your name and business," he said coolly. "And leave that body where it is." Seikaku was no stranger to being interrupted whilst he was working. For some reason no-one seemed to be able to appreciate the delicacy of trying to obtain valid, undamaged samples from a body that would have been in better shape if it had been thrown off of a five-storey building. He had already obtained a couple samples true enough, but the most important part of any kekkai genkai user was the brain and he had only just finished preparing it. Perhaps due to his fixation on his task, but more likely due to the stealth skills of the Anbu squad, he only noticed the strangers when the leader addressed him. Sighing, he looked up from the body, but, rather disturbingly, his hands did not stop what they were doing, continuing to cut away at the carcass. "Ah the Anbu. I should have known you'd turn up. Don't worry gentlemen I'm just finishing up here and then I'll be on my way. No need for anyone to get hurt", he said, eyeing the lethal looking sword pointed at him As he spoke these words he placed a fragment of brain tissue into a vial filled with a clear, yellow tinged liquid and replaced the lid, before tucking it away into his bag along with his tools. He slung it and the large scroll he carried over his shoulders and stood up. "My name is Seikaku. I'm a medic. I just so happened to stumble upon this battlefield and thought I might see if anyone required my services, alas most are dead already. If it's all the same to you I'll be taking your second option and just be heading back now". "Very well," Nigauri responded. "But those samples you just collected stay with us," he said, wondering if Seikaku had thought they wouldn't notice him stashing away the various parts extracted from the Shinobi's body. While it was a morbid sight, he couldn't say it was the worst he had seen, as Kirigakure's Anbu training program had thoroughly prepared him for any horror he might encounter on the battlefield. He started imagining the various "experiments" he had watched that had been performed on fellow recruits following their brutal sparing sessions. The way the medics had grinned as they slowly extracted living organs, their victims writhing on the tables... Yeah, it was best not to allow his mind to go there. "You're a pretty lousy medic, ignoring the seriously injured in order to pick at a corpse," Kabo chimed in. Nigauri ignored him as he took a closer look at the body the medical-nin had been dissecting. His eyes widened as realization dawned upon him. That symbol looked like... "Drop the bag and step away from that body," he commanded. If there had been any cordiality in his tone before, it was gone now, replaced by an ice-cold threat. "We Kiri-nin don't appreciate it when outsiders try to probe at the secrets of our kekkei-genkai users, regardless of whether they're on the wanted list or not." "Ah see this is where we have a problem. I need these samples for urgent...research purposes". Somehow Seikaku doubted this would cut it. He reached into his bag casually, fumbling around for a poison bomb, before promptly remembering he was all out. Removing his hand from his bag and flashing it to show it was empty, he began making preparations to manufacture the poison himself. He was not, of course, going to attempt to kill three Anbu of the Hidden Mist. He was a doctor for crying out loud. No, this situation required a lighter touch. Inside his body, the nessecery components for the toxin came together. A relatively simple, non-lethal paralytic. It was based off a form of curare but would not paralyse those muscles essential for respiration or cardiac functions. "Although, now I think of it, I don't remember altering it to prevent paralysis of the smooth muscle tissues. This was an alteration he would have to make later, and for now it wouldn't cause any side effects apart from a surprisingly strong urge to urinate when they woke up from their three-hour long slumber. All these thoughts occurred within the moment after he finished his sentence and a couple of heartbeats later his chemical was ready to be manufactured. All that was required was the spark of chakra nessecery to bind together a couple of stubborn components. "I'm not sure why you're so concerned about this Yuki, captain. Your own village was the one that ostracised him, forced him out for the very thing that makes him so valuable. You had no use for him in life and yet in death you protect him so jealously. In doing what I do I respect their birth, their existence, by preserving their bloodline and the gift it manifests as." As he finished these words he wove a couple of hand signs together and spewed out a yellow tinged mist. It wasn't his best work, a couple of minutes would have allowed him to make it colourless and a couple more would've removed the faint scent of chocolate, but it would do. It was fast acting, within 15 seconds of inhaling the mist motor skills would begin to suffer considerably and about 30 seconds after that they would be completely paralysed. To his knowledge Anbu masks did not contain air filters, but he'd been wrong before. Nigauri, while concerned with the appearance of the yellowish gas, did not allow himself to hesitate by expressing shock. Instead, he bit back his breath and quickly knit his fingers together in several hand signals around the hilt of his sword. Ram, dog, rat. The remaining mist above him convalesced, becoming dense once more in a manner of seconds before it shed its watery weight in a veil of . He didn't know what kind of effect the poison would have on him or his comrades, and he wasn't willing to find out. The rain would serve to absorb the effects of the chakra-activated gas, thereby preventing, for example, hypnosis via a chemical genjutsu. Even if the gas had only been meant to mask the movements of the user, he had learned that it was best to eliminate hazards ahead of time. As he provided cover for his teammates, they rushed upon Seikaku. Kabo screamed at the top of his lungs as he attacked with a kunai... but he swung much too far to the left of where he had been aiming and stumbled. The other Anbu had opted to keep his distance, but as he stood there spinning shuriken around his fingers, he suddenly seemed to lose his coordination. The shuriken slipped from his fingers, and he fumbled for another blade. Wakasa grimaced. He knew that the Mist Rain technique would serve to partially absorb the chakra of his comrades as well, but he had been expecting for the effect to be minimal. Why then, did their movements seem to be so heavy? Kabo seemed to recover himself though, and spun around to attack. He drove the kunai towards Seikaku's chest just as the other Anbu launched a handful of shuriken from the other direction, aiming for the medical-nin's back. Wakasa's eyes widened, realizing their mistake as it unfolded. But the almost-sure accident was already in motion, and Wakasa could only watch from too far away as they rushed towards their own undoing... Seikaku grit his teeth as the lead Anbu summoned rain from above. Rain wasn't good for the dispersal of any gaseous poison but where it fell he saw his fog become thinner. The chakra that was holding the substance together was being drained out, and as a result the toxin was falling apart much quicker than he had hoped. He usually relied on his concoctions to act as an obstacle as well as an offensive technique but the Anbu captain's negation of the rain meant it would be harmless in seconds. This was not how it was supposed to go down. Three Anbu against him was an almost certain loss and he had gone to a lot of trouble to hunt down this particular specimen. Despite the mounting worry, he had to hold back a smile as the captain's less cautious comrades charged screaming through the last remnants of the mist. Not enough to cause full paralysis, but he reckoned at least enough to have some kind of negative effect on their coordination. He was proven right a couple of moments later when each one in turn fumbled their weapons. Despite their seeming lack of competence these were Kiri Anbu shinobi he was dealing with. One circled around him, launching a barrage of shuriken towards his back, while the other plunged a kunai for his chest like a madman. To Seikaku's stimulated nervous system these actions played out at a tenth of their actual speed. He leapt sideways, removing himself from the path of the thrown weapons, and, incidentally leaving the man with the kunai to take the hit. Still moving, he darted towards the one who had thrown the shuriken, hand outstretched and ready to into the body of the Anbu. Again, this was a non-lethal approach. The man would slip into a medically induced coma, one which could easily be undone by even an inexperienced medical practitioner. Just as Nigauri had predicted, the shuriken intended for the enemy Shinobi instead embedded themselves in Kabo's chest. Fortunately his flak jacket stopped them from penetrating his skin, but he was still thrown off his feet by the impact. Meanwhile, the medical-nin had moved with surprising speed, but even though Nigauri had seen the attack coming from a distance, he made no move to help his comrade. Instead, leaping over Kabo, he took advantage of the opening and brought his sword down with both hands, straight towards the back of Seikaku's skull. The latter would find that the Anbu moved quickly as well: fast enough to close the distance between them with a single, unpredictable lunge, thereby leaving very little time to react. Seikaku pressed his hand against the Anbu and he felt the body immediately become limp. Spinning around, he began to process the black blade aimed decisively at his head. His assault on the Anbu had left him with too little time to evade the blade completely, so he continued his spin. The blade came down and cut a long but shallow gash in his arm. Seikaku grimaced, but allowed the momentum of the spin to carry one of his legs round in , if landed correctly. The same close proximity which had made it so hard for Seikaku to dodge the skilled slash of the man's sword would now work against him in evading the kick aimed for the side of his abdomen. The Anbu, however, seemed to sense the incoming danger, as his eyes widened slightly, realizing Seikaku's intended attack. Fully committed to his strike, he could not reverse his forward momentum and would be caught. However, at the last moment he spun the sword around so that its tip was pointing towards the ground, bracing the flat of the blade with one hand in order to intercept the kick. For a moment there was a lag in time as Seikaku's foot seemed to cushion against the side of the sword. But then the circular force overtook the point of contact. Unable to brace himself against the impact, Nigauri's hold crumbled. A wall of pressure slammed into his side, sending him flying as the attack carved a tunnel in the forest, tearing up the ground and surrounding trees. By the time he finally twisted around, sliding back several meters until the trenches dug by his feet finally allowed him to stop, he could no longer see Seikaku, as the dust and mist masked his opponent in the distance. "Damn," he swore behind his cracked mask. He tasted blood in his mouth, and it was difficult to force air into his lungs. He had probably cracked a rib or two, he noted gingerly. Realizing that he was now facing the medical-nin alone, as his two comrades had been incapacitated, the Anbu reached up... and removed his mask. Nigauri—whose real name was Wakasa—narrowed his cold blue eyes as he focused on his target. The fact that he had exposed his identity meant two things. First, that he would find it easier to breathe. Second, that he would be forced to permanently end his opponent, as he could not allow an enemy who had seen his face to live. It was a bet he made with himself, and an extra incentive to show no mercy. Not that he had been planning on showing mercy in the first place. Once again weaving together a series of hand signals, the rain drenching the battleground suddenly stopped. In its place the mist, which had steadily grown since the beginning of the onslaught, thickened. Soon, it had become so dense and white that Seikaku, who was at the center of the fog, would be unable to see anything around him. was the next step, as Wakasa sprinted towards Seikaku, completely and eerily silent. He made three attacks, first throwing two kunai directly at Seikaku's chest to distract him. Then, positioning himself behind Seikaku, he drove the tip of the sword up towards a point just below the Shinobi's left-shoulderblade with an emotionless brutality, intending to pierce the heart from behind. The attack, if everything had gone according to plan, would have seemed to have come out of nowhere for Seikaku, who would have been robbed by his sight by the mist even as Wakasa continued to maneuver despite the low visibility, seemingly without hindrance. It was Wakasa's specialty after all: He wasn't known as the "Master of the Mist" for nothing. As the dense mist descended around Seikaku he was eerily still. The silence descended with it. For a couple of seconds nothing moved. And then a rumbling sound split the air. The ground beneath his feet cracked and split. The shockwave wasn't particularly powerful and most of the damage was done to the ground, but the violence of it created a small circle free of the otherwise enveloping mist around Seikaku. It wasn't much but it was all he needed for his enhanced nervous system to allow him to process whatever threat came through that mist. The two kunai were what he noticed first. He spotted them as fast as humanly possible, immediately spinning to the left... But not quick enough to avoid the silent blade that now ran him through his right shoulder. Had he not evaded in the way that he had the blade would surely have found its target. As it was the blade sliced through the median vein in his arm and narrowly missed the nerve as well. The pain was intense and Seikaku found himself quashing the pain as best he could. Breathing heavily, he grabbed the sword by its blade with his uninjured left hand, holding it into the wound, preventing further blood loss as best he could. Seeing the cold blue eyes boring into his, Seikaku felt the man's intent to kill. "I crossed the wrong man". As thoughts sped through his mind, he settled on a plan of action. "This is the wrong day to die. The longer this goes on the easier it becomes for him and the greater chance he kills me." Whilst all of this processed, not even a moment had passed in the world outside of the medic's mind. He gripped the sword tighter and spat out a pellet of a choice. However, this substance was purified and altered to dull some effects and enhance others. First of all, if Wakasa had any parasites in his body, they were almost certainly dead. Secondly, his breath would remain minty fresh for at least six months (Author's note: artistic license has been taken for humorous purposes). However the only effect Wakasa would notice would be immediate, albeit temporary, blindness and disorientation, combined with a burning sensation on his skin. Having been enveloped in this man's mist, Seikaku felt determined to return the favour. The pellet was spat at high speed and, at the distance the man was from Seikaku, would cross the distance in an instant. Although it would be quite possible to capitalise on the disadvantage of his opponent, Seikaku was outclassed and he knew it. The only thing on his mind now was escape. Having hopefully incapacitated his opponent, Seikaku's next move would be a huge leap backwards, making use of his chakra enhanced strength in his legs, and then hopefully a successful retreat.